Dispensary Corner

THE global proliferation of smartphones has been put to an intriguing use by Stanford University scientists, who have collated data to analyse the world’s laziest countries.

The “planetary-scale” work looked at 68 million days’ worth of minute-by-minute data, with the average number of steps taken by mobile owners being 4,961.

The most active country was Hong Kong with an average of 6,880 per person - compared to Indonesia at the lower end with just 3,513 daily steps, and Australians in the 5,000 range.

Data from over 700,000 people who used the Argus activity tracker app was collated as part of the study which is 1,000 times larger than any previous research on human movement, said one of the authors, Scott Delp.

The variation in activity has been mapped (below) with cool colours, blue and green, indicating high levels of activity versus red and orange for lazier nations.

Other intriguing findings included the “walkability” of various cities worldwide, which the researchers said could help explain global obesity patterns.

The research was reported by correspondent James Gallagher, who confessed to a “conflict of interest” in compiling the story - “I made 10,590 steps yesterday but clocked up only 129 on Sunday. I left my phone on the kitchen table all day - that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it”.